Tibet BE16-22 10 srang
This specimen was lot 2477 in Stephen Album sale 45 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2023), where it sold for $144. The catalog description[1] noted, "TIBET: AR 10 srang, BE16-22 (1948), Autonomous Tibetan issue, snow lion facing left before the three mountain peaks of Mount Kailash with two suns in the background, cleaned, PCGS graded About Unc details." Tibet, now a (reluctant) part of China, had secured a de facto independence from China as the Manchu Empire decayed in the late nineteenth century. Tibetan currency was a mixture of Chinese, Nepalese and Indian units complicated by frequent debasements. One srang = 6-2/3 tangka = 10 sho. This example realized about five times the catalog value.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: billon.
Catalog reference: Y-29, L&M-663.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Lin Gwo Ming, Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Gold & Silver Coins: Ching and Republican Issues, Seventh Edition, Hong Kong: Ma Tak Wo Numismatic Co., Ltd., 2012.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 45, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2022.
Link to: